Sunday Dinner

On the menu this month was:
*Seasoned Chicken and Potatoes
*Roasted Vegetables
*Candy Crunch Pie

Seasoned Chicken and Potatoes:
*What you need:
*3-4 Potatoes--washed and sliced
*3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts-cubed
*1 bottle of Italian salad dressing
*1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese

To Do:
*Mix all ingredients together in Crock pot.
*Leave on high for 4+ hours (medium for a little longer)

Enjoy! Seriously easy and really good!

Roasted Vegetables
How:
*Preheat oven to 400 degrees
*Grease a shallow baking pan or a roasting pan
*Wash and thinly slice your vegetables
*Mix vegetables with about 2-3 tbsp olive oil (depending on how many veggies you have)
*Spread veggies out so they aren't touching on pan
*Roast for 10 minutes
*Turn and roast another 10
*Veggies will be lightly browned

Candy Crunch Pie
You will need:
*1 Oreo pie crust
(you can make your own but I've found that buying one is actually cheaper and healthier since you don't eat all the extra Oreos :)
*One box of Chocolate Fudge Jello Pudding mix
*1 1/2 cups milk (I used skim milk)
*1 container of Cool Whip (I used light)
*3 Skor candy bars--crushed
*Chocolate Syrup

To Do:
*Mix pudding and milk together for 2 minutes
*Add all but 3 tbsp crushed Skor bar and half of the Cool Whip with the pudding
*Pour into crust
*Top with remaining cool whip, Skor bar, and drizzle with chocolate syrup

Taco Soup

What You'll Need:
*One can of black beans (drain and rinse)
*One can kidney beans (depending on how "liquidy" you want your soup you can chose to drain or not)
*One can of corn (not drained)
*One can of diced tomatoes
*2-3 chicken breasts
*One package of taco seasoning
**Optional**
Sour cream
cheese
tortilla chips

What to do:
*Brown or boil and shred chicken
*Place all ingredients into a big pan and bring to a boil
*Ladle into a bowl and if you'd like top with sour cream, cheese, and tortilla chips!

Yum!

Saturday Cooking

Today was a big kitchen day. I spent at least 3-4 hours in the kitchen completing various tasks.
Including:
*Shucking at least 17 ears of corn
*Slicing squash and zucchini
*Freezing squash and zucchini
*Making banana oat bran muffins for grandpa
*Making Taco Soup for yours truly

Grandpa gave me some very ripe bananas last week because Zach likes banana bread. That was very nice of him. I asked my mom if she thought he would like some banana bread, too. She reminded me that grandpa doesn't really eat much these days. So I decided a muffin..it's small and easy and maybe he'll like them? I found a recipe for Banana Oat Bran Muffins in my Fannie Farmer cookbook (my favorite cookbook!) They are healthy, easy to make and yummy!Here's how you make them:
What you'll need:
-2 cups oat bran
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 cup milk (lowfat milk works)
-2 egg whites
-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
-1/2 cup mashed bananas

What you do:
*Preheat oven to 425
*Grease muffin tin
*Stir together oat bran, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder.
*In a separate bowl: combine remaining ingredients
*Pour banana mixture into bran mixture and stir
*Pour into muffin pan--filling each cup about 2/3 full
*Bake 15-17 minutes
You can substitute the banana for a number of things including:
-1/2 cup applesauce
-1 cup grated apple
-1/2 cup dried apricots
-1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

I went on to then make taco soup.
More on that to come....

Easy Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I decided I was in the mood to bake the other day and this is what I came up with:
Easy Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Now, say that ten times fast:)

This was somewhat of an experiment. I wanted to bake, but I didn't want to spend too much money and I wanted something quick and easy. Ken and I received a cookbook for Christmas a couple of years ago titled "Get Me Out of The Kitchen!". It has a ton of really easy recipes that usually don't involve too many ingredients, one of which is a recipe for oatmeal cookies. The original recipe calls for four ingredients! FOUR! And, despite how little you use to make the cookies, they actually turn out tasting pretty good! I didn't JUST want oatmeal cookies, so I decided to throw in some chocolate chips and peanut butter, because in all reality, who can go wrong with chocolate chips and peanut butter?

Here is what you will need:



1 and 1/2 cup quick oats
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup to 1 cup of peanut butter (depending on how much peanut butter you'd like. I only used a 1/2 cup and I wish I had used more.)


Directions:
*Mix together all six ingredients.
*spoon rounded tablespoons of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet and
*bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.







The hardest part was keeping my fingers out of the cookie dough!:)

Sunday Dinner

I still eat Sunday dinner with my parents, my brother, and as of the past 2 years, my grandpa.
Once a month I give the above the joy of eating a dinner made by yours truly. It is also an opportunity for my dad to tell me how "impressed" he is with how domestic I've become. Also an opportunity for me to once again tell my dad that it's his fault I lacked any domestic desires for as long as I did in the first place. And that's Sunday dinner in a nutshell.

So...once a month you will all get the privilege of seeing my Sunday dinner recipes.
As I mentioned I'm trying to excel in the "from scratch" column...but that isn't always the case.
So here was our Sunday dinner for the month of July.

*Salad with homemade croutons
*Fresh Fruit and fruit dip
*Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

Let's start with the salad.
Put whatever you want in it. :)
For the croutons I took a loaf of Rosemary Sourdough and cut it into cubes
I mixed about 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil with about 1 Tbsp of Garlic Powder
Brushed all sides of each cube
Put it in the oven on 350 for 15 minutes
Turn cubes and put in for another 15...if they seem done, put them in your salad and it will be amazing I promise!

Fruit and Fruit Dip
Wash and slice fruit
We had cherries, strawberries, grapes, and apples
You'll need one package of cream cheese (don't skimp and get low fat..trust me)
and a large jar of marshmallow creme
Mix the marshmallow cream with the cream cheese until smooth
Refrigerate and you're ready

Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo
(one of my favorite FAVORITE discoveries EVER)
You'll need:
*1/2 of a 16 oz. package linguine
*1 Cup fresh or frozen broccoli (chopped)
*2 tbsp butter
*1lb. Skinless, boneless chicken breasts (cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces)
*1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup (condensed)
*1/2 Cup Milk
*1/2 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
*1/4 tsp Ground Black Pepper

1. Prepare linguine according to package directions.
Add the broccoli during the last 4 minutes of cooking time
Drain well

2. Heat butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Add chicken until well browned

3. Stir soup, milk, cheese, black pepper, and linguine mixture in skillet. Cook until mixture is hot and bubbling, stirring occasionally.

This recipe rocks. There's not a whole lot to it, but it is delicious. It is honestly one of my favorites.

I would post the dessert recipe for this dinner but I think this post is LONG enough. I'll post the dessert another time.

Mexican Casserole

Mexican Casserole.

I made this meal last week for my husband and I. I found the recipe on the internet and then added a few extras in. It was super good and it makes roughly 8 to 10 servings depending on how you slice it:)

What You Will Need:

1 lb hamburger,
2 cups salsa,
1 can black beans (drained and rinsed),
1/4 cup Craft Zesty Italian dressing,
1 package of taco seasoning,
6 flour tortillas,
1 package of shredded cheese (2 cups),
1 can of corn,
tortilla chips (optional),
and a pinch of cayenne pepper to spice it up:)

Directions:
*Preheat the over to 400 degrees.
*Brown hamburger in skillet and drain.
*Mix in salsa, black beans, Zesty Italian Dressing, taco seasoning, corn, and cayenne pepper.
*Arrange three tortillas along the bottom and side of a 13 x 9 pan.
*Cover the tortillas with half of the meat mixture.
*Then cover the meat mixture with a cup of cheese and sour cream.
*Repeat Layers.

Bake 40 minutes and Viola!



The recipe suggests placing tin foil over the casserole. I forgot to do that, but it turned out perfectly! Ken and I also spread crushed tortilla chips over the top. It was delicious! I have a weakness for Mexican food and I've made similar casseroles before and this has been the best so far.